Portrait of a killer: Call of Duty-loving shooter, 18, was bullied at school for being poor, creeped out his Wendy’s female co-workers, and lived with his grandmother who he shot at START of rampage after row over not graduating
- Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday
- Locals said he had troubled home life and his behavior grew bizarre as he entered his teenage years
- He began dressing in black, wearing military boots and growing his hair long
In yet another tragic mass shooting, Salvador Ramos, 18, slaughtered 19 innocent children and two much-loved teachers at Robb Elementary school, in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday before being killed in a shoot out with a Border Patrol officer and local law enforcement.
It is the second deadliest shooting in US history after the infamous Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 – which saw 26 people killed – and has once again left people asking how someone could commit such a heinous crime.
As the country tries to make sense of the tragedy, stories about Ramos are beginning to emerge from those who knew him best, painting the picture of loner with a propensity for self-harm and violence, who was from an unstable home, including an alleged drug-using mother.
Neighbors and classmates say his behavior spiraled into the bizarre and macabre as he entered his later teenage years, with one friend telling Good Morning America: ‘He had scars on his face and someone asked him, ‘Are you ok?’ and he just said with a smile ‘I did it myself, I liked how it looked.’
He began dressing in dark clothes and military boots and used his BB gun to target random people, one local claimed.
There are around 15,000 residents in Uvalde which sits roughly 80 miles west of San Antonio, around an hour’s drive from the US-Mexico border.
The would-be mass murderer lived on Hood Street, less than three miles from the Robb Elementary school.
More than one-third of residents in the city live at or barely above the federal poverty line.